Netflix Europe debut set for January 2012

Netflix's long-awaited European debut may have been scheduled for January 2012, if claims from Spain are to be believed.

According to a variety of local papers, that's when Netflix will launch in Spain, offering Spaniards around 3500 movies and TV shows to stream.

The claim apparently comes from Pedro Perez, president of the Federation of Spanish Audiovisual Producer Associations. He said Netflix has contacted a number of his organisation's members regarding their plans for the Spanish video-on-demand offering.

Hopefully, if Netflix is launching in Spain it will be rolling out its service in the rest of Europe too - good news for folk who've been hoping its VoD service will come here.

Netflix's current focus for expansion outside of the US is Central and South America. Given the linguistic connection between these areas and Spain - Portugal too - an initial European foray into these two countries would establish a beachhead for a continent-wide roll-out later. ®